Short sleep duration and health outcomes: a systematic review, meta-analysis, and meta-regression.

Question:

Does shorter sleep duration contribute to mortality and incidence of chronic health conditions?

Conclusion:

Short sleepers have an increased risk of mortality and incidence of chronic health conditions when compared to ‘normal’ sleepers who sleep 7 hours per day.

Process:

108 out of 2521 studies qualified for analysis.
Selected prospective studies at least 1-year in duration
Study quality ranked on a 9-point system; only 8-9 points included in analysis

Analysis:

Short sleep duration < 6 hours
Normal sleep duration 7-8 hours
Measures: comparative risk of mortality, diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, dyslipidemia, coronary heart diseases, obesity, and mortality.

Results:

Probability of events/conditions in short sleepers when compared to normal sleepers.

Mortality - 1.12 times the risk
Diabetes - 1.37 times the risk
Hypertension - 1.17 times the risk
Cardiovascular Disease - 1.16 times the risk
Coronary Heart Disease - 1.26 times the risk
Obesity - 1.38 times the risk
Dyslipidemia - not enough data
Depression - not enough data

Other Information:

Results do not indicate sleep causes the outcomes; but the duration contributes to the factors that impact things like mortality.
Studies do not account for the quality of sleep